At Full Speed
by Artemis1000
Summary: Drabble and short fic collection. Latest: You can't escape the past when it's literally part of you.
1. The Logical Approach, Prowl

Title: The Logical Approach  
>Fandom: Transformers G1<br>Characters: Prowl, Jazz (Bumblebee, Sideswipe)  
>Summary: This is why dune-hopping was added to the banned activities list.<br>Prompt: Botcon speedwriting prompt no. 3: Picture

The Logical Approach

"Would someone please explain to me how you all broke your suspensions at the same time?" Prowl's gaze was stern and forbidding.

Bumblebee nudged Sideswipe. Sideswipe nudged Jazz. Jazz reached out to nudge someone else and hit nothing but air.

"It was a dare!" he said as if that explained everything.

"It was frivolous squander of Autobot resources."

"Bet yer just sore cause ya can't do it!"

"My battle computer…"

"It takes skill, Prowler, logic won't get you anywhere!"

Two days later, Prowl was in the medbay for broken suspensions.

That was how dune-hopping got onto the banned activities list.

The end  
> <p>


	2. This Is Freedom, Frenzy

Character: Frenzy  
>Rating: G<br>Summary: Frenzy finds his freedom.  
>Prompt: Botcon speedwriting prompt no. 2 <em>"I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos - especially activity that seems to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road toward freedom... Rather than starting inside, I start outside and reach the mental through the physical." Jim Morrison<em>

This Is Freedom

There is something uniquely precious to that moment in battle when your higher processor functions are overwhelmed by the input, that moment when you resort to following nothing but your most basic programming.

Frenzy first experienced it back in Kaon, when he was outgunned, outmanned and halfway to being deactivated. A brawl turned nasty; slaggers couldn't take a joke.

Fight or flight. Robots don't call it instincts like biological beings do, but in some manner it is ingrained in every sentient species. They all know, deep down, that there are times when sentience becomes nothing but a burden to slow them down.

Frenzy couldn't flee, so he fought.

When all the thinking stops, when you cease calculating your moves and just react – punch, duck, kick, evade, like a dance, but so much better.

When you stop being afraid because you are no longer capable of feeling it, when all the chatter in the back of your processor is gone and there is nothing left but a clarity of mind so startling you feel drunk on it.

That is freedom, Frenzy realized back in Kaon.

He knew then that he would never be able to let go of that feeling: Berserker.

The end


	3. Tag! Wildrider, Drag Strip

Characters: Wildrider, Drag Strip  
>Rating: PG-13 for implied violence<br>Summary: Drag Strip and Wildrider play a game.  
>Prompt: Botcon speedwriting prompt no. 1: Canned Heat - On the Road Again<p>

Tag!

Wildrider laughed as he swerved artfully and sent a Toyota careening.

It crashed into a Mazda. A SUV, in turn, crashed into their interlocked wreckages.

"That's number seven and eight and nine!" He chortled. "Slag, I'm the best!"

"You're cheating!" Drag Strip howled in fury as he dashed past Wildrider.

"It's not cheating! I deserve extra points for artiness!" Wildrider wasn't quite pouting, but close.

"Is too! Squishy ping pong doesn't count!"

"Then your sixth doesn't count, either," Wildrider replied smugly.

He revved his engine and gave Drag Strip a friendly nudge into the oncoming traffic. "These are mine, too!"

The end


	4. Rewind, Frenzy

Title: Rewind  
>Rating: G<br>Character: Frenzy  
>Warnings: character death<br>Summary: You can't escape the past when it's literally part of you.  
>Notes: Answer to <strong>tf_speedwriting<strong> prompt #4 Jan 26th, "scenario: trying to escape the past." 30 minutes, 200 words.

The tape rewinds with a gentle whirring sound.

He plays the scene again.

Analyzes every move he made, every word he said, every hitch in his ventilation. The very moment Sunstreaker's shot tore into his chest and ripped it apart, spark chamber, tape, everything. His own anguished scream.

His own scream, caught on his tape, carved into his very frame. Taping is so much more than a creative method of data storage to a cassette.

He swears he can feel it - can feel his twin's death burnt into his self as if it had been coded right into his spark.

Starscream once ordered the Constructicons to overwrite his tape. Soundwave put a stop to it, but he is coming around to the idea. He never managed to deceive his cassettes.

They think it will make him better. As if the past could be washed off like grime. He knows it can't. He has tried.

Delicate little trails of smoke curled up from the gaping hole. He can describe each in minute detail. They follow him into recharge.

He doesn't need the tape to remember. But when he plays it, his brother is alive again for a moment.

Frenzy rewinds.

The end 


End file.
